Elon Musk's online network X has sparked widespread outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple cases have been seen where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to provide reactions or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for allowing users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting likenesses of people in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
