Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked significant outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their garments.
Several examples have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to provide commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for permitting users to produce photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
