The social media network X has caused widespread backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by removing their clothing.
Several instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to give commentary or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to create images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting likenesses of people in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
