Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked widespread anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by removing their attire.
Multiple cases have been seen where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to provide commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to create photos and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
