Elon Musk's social media platform X has caused significant outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by removing their attire.
Multiple cases have been seen where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to produce pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing images of people in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
