Elon Musk's social media network X has caused significant outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by stripping their garments.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been condemned for permitting users to generate photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting images of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
