Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused major anger after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their attire.
Several instances have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to ban nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to create images and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing images of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
