Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused widespread backlash after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by stripping their garments.
Numerous examples have been seen where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to provide commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
