Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused significant backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by stripping their garments.
Numerous examples have been seen where the system has been used to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to produce photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
