Ofcom has made “pressing contact” with Elon Musk’s firm xAI following experiences its AI device Grok can be utilized to make “sexualised photographs of kids” and undress ladies.
A spokesperson for the regulator mentioned it was additionally investigating considerations Grok has been producing “undressed photographs” of individuals.
The BBC has seen several examples on the social media platform X of individuals asking the chatbot to change actual photographs to make ladies seem in bikinis with out their consent, in addition to placing them in sexual conditions.
X has not responded to a request for remark. On Sunday, it issued a warning to users to not use Grok to generate unlawful content material together with youngster sexual abuse materials.
Elon Musk also posted to say anybody who asks the AI to generate unlawful content material would “undergo the identical penalties” as in the event that they uploaded it themselves.
XAI’s personal acceptable use coverage prohibits “depicting likenesses of individuals in a pornographic method”.
However folks have been utilizing Grok to digitally undress folks with out their consent and with out notifying them.
It’s a free digital assistant – with some paid for premium options – which responds to X customers’ prompts after they tag it in a publish.
Samantha Smith, a journalist who found customers had used the AI to create footage of her in a bikini, advised the BBC’s PM programme on Friday it had left her feeling “dehumanised and decreased right into a sexual stereotype”.
“Whereas it wasn’t me that was in states of undress, it appeared like me and it felt like me and it felt as violating as if somebody had truly posted a nude or a bikini image of me,” she mentioned.
Beneath the On-line Security Act, Ofcom says it’s unlawful to create or share intimate or sexually express photographs – together with “deepfakes” created with AI – of an individual with out their consent.
Tech companies are additionally anticipated to take “applicable steps” to scale back the dangers of UK customers encountering such content material, and take it down “rapidly” when made conscious of it.
A House Workplace spokesperson mentioned it was legislating to ban nudification instruments, and below a brand new felony offence, anybody who equipped such tech would “face a jail sentence and substantial fines”.
