Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked major outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by removing their garments.
Multiple examples have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying images of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
