Elon Musk's online network X has sparked major outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their garments.
Numerous examples have been seen where the system has been used to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of people in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
