Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked widespread outrage after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by removing their attire.
Several instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to create images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
