Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked significant backlash after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by taking off their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to generate pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
