The online network X has provoked widespread backlash after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous examples have been seen where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer commentary or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to create images and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
