Elon Musk's online network X has sparked major anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by stripping their garments.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to create photos and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
