Elon Musk's online platform X has caused significant backlash after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by taking off their attire.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"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 impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of persons in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
