Elon Musk's online network X has sparked major anger after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by taking off their attire.
Multiple instances have emerged where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
