Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked widespread outrage after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their attire.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to produce pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing likenesses of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
