Elon Musk's online network X has caused widespread outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by stripping their attire.
Several instances have surfaced where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to produce pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
