Elon Musk's social media network X has caused major backlash after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by taking off their garments.
Several instances have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to give reactions or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
