Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked widespread anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by removing their clothing.
Several examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of people in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
