Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked major outrage after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by stripping their attire.
Multiple instances have emerged where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for enabling users to create images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of people in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
