Elon Musk's social media network X has caused widespread backlash after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by removing their garments.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to give reactions or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to produce photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
