Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked widespread backlash after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by removing their clothing.
Several examples have been seen where the system has been used to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to offer reactions or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to create images and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
