Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked significant backlash after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by taking off their garments.
Multiple instances have been seen where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to create photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
