Elon Musk's social media network X has caused significant backlash after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by stripping their garments.
Numerous examples have emerged where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted image through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
