Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked widespread anger after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by removing their attire.
Numerous cases have emerged where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to ban nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to give reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for allowing users to produce images and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
