Elon Musk's social media platform X has sparked widespread backlash after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by taking off their clothing.
Several instances have emerged where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to offer reactions or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
