Elon Musk's online network X has provoked widespread backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by stripping their clothing.
Several examples have emerged where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to ban nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for allowing users to create images and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing images of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
