Elon Musk's online platform X has caused significant outrage after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by taking off their attire.
Numerous cases have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to generate images and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
