Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused major backlash after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by taking off their attire.
Numerous examples have been seen where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to ban nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide commentary or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to create images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
