Elon Musk's online network X has provoked major backlash after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by stripping their garments.
Numerous instances have emerged where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been criticised for enabling users to generate pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting images of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
