Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked widespread backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by stripping their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to provide reactions or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to create images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
