Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of women by taking off their attire.
Numerous instances have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing images of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
