Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused significant backlash after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple examples have emerged where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to give reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
