Elon Musk's online network X has sparked significant anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple examples have emerged where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been condemned for enabling users to generate photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
