Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked significant outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple examples have emerged where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to produce images and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and stated this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
