Elon Musk's online network X has caused major outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by removing their garments.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to give commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been criticised for permitting users to create pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
