Elon Musk's social media platform X has sparked major backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by stripping their clothing.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of generating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
