The online platform X has sparked significant outrage after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by removing their garments.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to provide reactions or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to generate pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
