Elon Musk's social media platform X has sparked significant anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by taking off their attire.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to create photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
