Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked widespread outrage after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by taking off their attire.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to produce images and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
