Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked significant backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by taking off their attire.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
