Elon Musk's online platform X has caused major backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous instances have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted image through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to generate photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
