Elon Musk's social media network X has caused significant anger after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by stripping their garments.
Numerous cases have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
