Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked widespread anger after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by removing their attire.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing images of people in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share private pictures or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
