Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked significant anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by stripping their clothing.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer commentary or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to create photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
