Elon Musk's online network X has caused significant anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their clothing.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok 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."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
