Elon Musk's online network X has sparked significant anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by stripping their garments.
Multiple examples have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to ban nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology 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 Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for enabling users to create images and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting likenesses of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
