Elon Musk's online network X has sparked significant anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by removing their clothing.
Numerous cases have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to give reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to create pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of generating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of people in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
