Elon Musk's social media network X has caused major backlash after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by stripping their garments.
Several cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to create images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
