Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused significant anger after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their attire.
Multiple examples have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to give reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for permitting users to create pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
