Elon Musk's online network X has caused major anger after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by stripping their attire.
Multiple examples have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to give reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to create images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing likenesses of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
