Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked widespread anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by stripping their attire.
Multiple examples have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting images of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
