Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked significant anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by taking off their clothing.
Several cases have emerged where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded photo through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to produce images and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
