Elon Musk's online platform X has caused widespread outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by taking off their garments.
Several examples have emerged where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for allowing users to create pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of generating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting images of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
