Elon Musk's online network X has sparked widespread outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by removing their clothing.
Several instances have surfaced where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been faulted for enabling users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying images of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
