Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused widespread anger after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple instances have emerged where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of generating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting images of persons in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
