Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked major anger after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Multiple cases have emerged where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
