Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked major backlash after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by taking off their garments.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to offer reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
