Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked significant anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by taking off their clothing.
Multiple cases have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
