Elon Musk's online platform X has caused major backlash after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their clothing.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to generate photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
