Elon Musk's online network X has sparked major backlash after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by taking off their clothing.
Several instances have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to give commentary or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to generate pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying images of people in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
