Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked significant backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by stripping their clothing.
Several examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
