Elon Musk's social media platform X has sparked major anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by stripping their clothing.
Several instances have surfaced where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for allowing users to create pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of persons in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
