Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked widespread anger after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by taking off their clothing.
Multiple instances have emerged where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been condemned for enabling users to produce images and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
