Elon Musk's online network X has sparked widespread outrage after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by taking off their attire.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for enabling users to produce images and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
