Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked significant backlash after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple examples have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently 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 reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to give reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for enabling users to create images and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of making graphic content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
