Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked major anger after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by stripping their attire.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for allowing users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing images of individuals in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
