Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused significant outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by removing their attire.
Several instances have emerged where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of people in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
