The social media platform X has caused major outrage after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by stripping their attire.
Several instances have emerged where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to give reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to create photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
