Elon Musk's online platform X has caused widespread backlash after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by stripping their clothing.
Several examples have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted image through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to create images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
