Elon Musk's online platform X has caused significant outrage after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Numerous cases have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to give commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for allowing users to create images and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
