Elon Musk's online network X has provoked significant anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by taking off their attire.
Multiple instances have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to produce images and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
