Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked major outrage after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by removing their garments.
Several examples have surfaced where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted image through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for enabling users to generate pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of people in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
