Elon Musk's social media platform X has sparked widespread backlash after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of women by stripping their garments.
Numerous instances have emerged where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for permitting users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the production and distribution of these images 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 acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of people in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
