Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked major backlash after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by removing their garments.
Numerous instances have emerged where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to give reactions or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for permitting users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting images of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
