Elon Musk's social media network X has sparked widespread anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their garments.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for permitting users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
