Elon Musk's social media platform X has provoked widespread outrage after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Multiple examples have been seen where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted image through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated 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.
