Elon Musk's social media network X has provoked significant anger after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by removing their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to give commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to generate photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law 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 obligated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
