Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked widespread outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by stripping their attire.
Several instances have emerged where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to give reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
