Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major outrage after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple cases have been seen where the system has been used to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to offer reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting images of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
