Elon Musk's online network X has caused major backlash after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by stripping their attire.
Multiple examples have been seen where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for permitting users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "showing likenesses of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
