Elon Musk's online network X has provoked significant anger after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by stripping their clothing.
Multiple cases have emerged where the technology has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to produce images and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing images of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
