Elon Musk's online network X has caused major backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by removing their garments.
Several cases have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to generate pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
