Elon Musk's social media network X has caused widespread outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by taking off their clothing.
Several cases have emerged where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted image through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
