Elon Musk's social media platform X has sparked widespread anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their garments.
Multiple instances have been seen where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to ban nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying images of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
