Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked significant backlash after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to ban nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to produce images and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of people in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
