Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused significant outrage after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their clothing.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to give commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to produce photos and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
