Elon Musk's online network X has sparked significant anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to provide commentary or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to produce photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
