Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked major outrage after users used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by removing their clothing.
Several examples have been seen where the system has been used to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted image through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for allowing users to produce photos and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
