Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked widespread backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their garments.
Numerous instances have been seen where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to give commentary or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for enabling users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
