Elon Musk's online network X has sparked significant backlash after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by taking off their clothing.
Multiple cases have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been condemned for permitting users to produce pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting images of persons in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
