Elon Musk's online network X has provoked widespread outrage after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by removing their garments.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to generate pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
