Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked significant backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by removing their attire.
Several instances have been seen where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of making graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying images of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
