Elon Musk's online platform X has caused significant backlash after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by taking off their garments.
Several cases have emerged where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to generate photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
