Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused widespread anger after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their clothing.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to produce pictures and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of generating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing images of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
