Elon Musk's online network X has provoked widespread outrage after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their garments.
Several cases have emerged where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to produce pictures and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing images of people in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
