Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked major backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by stripping their clothing.
Several instances have emerged where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for allowing users to produce pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing images of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
