Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked significant backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by removing their attire.
Several examples have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of persons in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
