Elon Musk's online network X has sparked widespread anger after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by stripping their attire.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
