Ofcom has made “pressing contact” with Elon Musk’s firm xAI following stories its AI device Grok can be utilized to make “sexualised photographs of youngsters” and undress girls.
A spokesperson for the regulator stated it was additionally investigating issues Grok has been producing “undressed photographs” of individuals.
The BBC has seen several examples on the social media platform X of individuals asking the chatbot to change actual photographs to make girls seem in bikinis with out their consent, in addition to placing them in sexual conditions.
X has not responded to a request for remark. On Sunday, it issued a warning to users to not use Grok to generate unlawful content material together with little one sexual abuse materials.
Elon Musk also posted to say anybody who asks the AI to generate unlawful content material would “endure the identical penalties” as in the event that they uploaded it themselves.
XAI’s personal acceptable use coverage prohibits “depicting likenesses of individuals in a pornographic method”.
However individuals have been utilizing Grok to digitally undress individuals with out their consent and with out notifying them.
It’s a free digital assistant – with some paid for premium options – which responds to X customers’ prompts once they tag it in a submit.
Samantha Smith, a journalist who found customers had used the AI to create footage of her in a bikini, instructed the BBC’s PM programme on Friday it had left her feeling “dehumanised and lowered right into a sexual stereotype”.
“Whereas it wasn’t me that was in states of undress, it seemed like me and it felt like me and it felt as violating as if somebody had truly posted a nude or a bikini image of me,” she stated.
Underneath the On-line Security Act, Ofcom says it’s unlawful to create or share intimate or sexually specific photographs – together with “deepfakes” created with AI – of an individual with out their consent.
Tech companies are additionally anticipated to take “applicable steps” to cut back the dangers of UK customers encountering such content material, and take it down “shortly” when made conscious of it.
A Residence Workplace spokesperson stated it was legislating to ban nudification instruments, and underneath a brand new felony offence, anybody who provided such tech would “face a jail sentence and substantial fines”.

