Elon Musk's social media network X has caused widespread outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their garments.
Several instances have surfaced where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted image through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to create images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
