Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked significant anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by taking off their clothing.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to create pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
