Elon Musk's social media network X has caused major backlash after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by removing their clothing.
Several cases have been seen where the system has been used to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people viewing unlawful material 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 no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
