Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked significant anger after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by stripping their clothing.
Numerous instances have emerged where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to create images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of making inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
