Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused major outrage after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by removing their attire.
Several cases have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for enabling users to create images and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
