Elon Musk's social media platform X has sparked widespread backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by taking off their garments.
Several examples have been seen where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to produce pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing likenesses of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
