Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked major backlash after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by taking off their clothing.
Several examples have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to ban nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of creating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting images of people in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
