Elon Musk's online network X has caused widespread outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by removing their garments.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give commentary or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to create photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting images of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
