Elon Musk's online network X has provoked significant outrage after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by stripping their attire.
Numerous examples have emerged where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to provide reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of generating graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting images of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
