Elon Musk's social media platform X has sparked widespread backlash after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by removing their garments.
Several instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to produce pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of creating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
