Elon Musk's online network X has caused widespread backlash after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their attire.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give reactions or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to generate photos and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of making graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
