Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked major backlash after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their clothing.
Several examples have been seen where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing images of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
