Elon Musk's online network X has provoked widespread outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by removing their clothing.
Numerous examples have been seen where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to give reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to create images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of making graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting images of people in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
