Elon Musk's online network X has sparked major backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by removing their clothing.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming 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 functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to generate pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute 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 steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
