Elon Musk's social media network X has caused significant outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by stripping their garments.
Multiple instances have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
