Elon Musk's online network X has caused widespread backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by removing their attire.
Several instances have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of generating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
