Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked widespread anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by stripping their attire.
Several cases have surfaced where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to offer reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted image through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to produce pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
