Elon Musk's online network X has provoked significant backlash after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by removing their attire.
Several cases have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for allowing users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
