Elon Musk's online platform X has caused widespread outrage after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by taking off their attire.
Multiple examples have emerged where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to provide commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for permitting users to generate photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
