Elon Musk's online platform X has sparked widespread anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their clothing.
Numerous cases have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to create pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of persons in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
