🔗 Share this article

Elon Musk's online platform X has caused widespread anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by taking off their clothing.

Numerous cases have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.

Company Response and Legal Position

XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".

A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and heavy fines".

"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."

Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities

The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.

Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.

It is commonly used to give commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.

Background of Controversy and Policy

The system has been condemned for permitting users to generate photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate material of public figures.

"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.

XAI's own usage rules bans "showing images of people in a graphic way".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images generated with AI.

It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.