Elon Musk's online network X has sparked widespread anger after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by taking off their garments.
Several examples have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer reactions or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to generate images and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting images of people in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
