🔗 Share this article

Elon Musk's social media network X has caused major backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by stripping their garments.

Numerous examples have been seen where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.

Company Response and Legal Position

XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".

A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".

"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."

Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality

The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.

Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.

It is frequently used to provide reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.

Background of Criticism and Policy

The tool has been criticised for permitting users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.

"X has been permitting the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.

XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.

It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.