Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked significant backlash after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by removing their attire.
Several cases have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide commentary or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution 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 acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
