Elon Musk's online platform X has caused major backlash after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by stripping their attire.
Several examples have emerged where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been criticised for enabling users to produce photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting images of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
