The online platform X has provoked widespread backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by removing their garments.
Multiple instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give commentary or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to create photos and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of people in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
