Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked significant backlash after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple examples have emerged where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give reactions or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to create photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting images of persons in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
