Elon Musk's online network X has sparked major backlash after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by stripping their garments.
Multiple examples have emerged where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to ban nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to produce photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying images of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
