Elon Musk's online network X has provoked significant anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by taking off their clothing.
Multiple cases have emerged where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide reactions or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to produce pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
