Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked significant outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by removing their garments.
Numerous cases have emerged where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to give commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted image through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to create photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
