Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked widespread backlash after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple examples have been seen where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to offer reactions or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of creating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
