The social media network X has sparked widespread anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple examples have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying images of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
