Elon Musk's online network X has sparked significant anger after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their garments.
Several instances have emerged where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium features—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for allowing users to create images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
