Elon Musk's social media network X has caused major outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying images of people in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
