Elon Musk's online network X has sparked major anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their garments.
Several examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to remove clothing from women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for allowing users to create photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
