Elon Musk's online network X has caused major outrage after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their clothing.
Several instances have surfaced where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to ban nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to produce photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
