Elon Musk's online platform X has caused major anger after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by stripping their clothing.
Several examples have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to give commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to create images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
