Elon Musk's online network X has provoked widespread outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by removing their clothing.
Numerous cases have been seen where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to provide reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to generate images and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting images of people in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
