Elon Musk's social media network X has caused widespread outrage after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Numerous instances have been seen where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to ban nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
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 frequently used to offer reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to produce photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
