Elon Musk's online platform X has caused widespread anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their clothing.
Several instances have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to produce images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing images of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
