Elon Musk's online network X has sparked major anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by taking off their attire.
Several examples have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to ban nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for allowing users to produce photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
