Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused major backlash after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their attire.
Numerous instances have been seen where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer commentary or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to generate images and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
