The social media platform X has provoked major outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their garments.
Numerous cases have emerged where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to produce images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
