Elon Musk's online platform X has provoked major backlash after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by taking off their attire.
Multiple examples have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide reactions or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
