Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked major backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by removing their clothing.
Numerous cases have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to give commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to produce photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.