Elon Musk's social media platform X has sparked significant backlash after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their clothing.
Several cases have been seen where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to generate images and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of people in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
