Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused major outrage after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by taking off their clothing.
Several instances have emerged where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an posted picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
