The social media platform X has provoked widespread backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous cases have been seen where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to produce images and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
