Elon Musk's social media platform X has sparked major backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by removing their clothing.
Several cases have been seen where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to provide commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to generate pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
