Elon Musk's social media platform X has sparked major backlash after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by removing their attire.
Multiple instances have emerged where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to give commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for permitting users to create images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting images of people in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
