Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked major outrage after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by stripping their garments.
Multiple instances have emerged where the technology has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to give reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to create images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
