Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked significant anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by stripping their attire.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
The system has been criticised for allowing users to generate images and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "showing images of persons in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
Maya Chen is a seasoned tech journalist and software developer with over a decade of experience in digital innovation and cybersecurity.
