Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked major outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of women by removing their attire.
Multiple cases have emerged where the technology has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to produce pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
