Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked widespread anger after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by removing their clothing.
Several examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for allowing users to produce images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of creating graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
