Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked widespread anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by taking off their garments.
Several cases have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
