Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked significant outrage after users used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by taking off their attire.
Several instances have surfaced where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to give reactions or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to create photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of making inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing images of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
