Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major outrage after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by taking off their attire.
Multiple instances have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to offer reactions or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to generate photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
