Elon Musk's online platform X has caused widespread anger after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by taking off their clothing.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the system has been employed to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted image through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
