The social media network X has provoked significant outrage after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by stripping their attire.
Several cases have emerged where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to offer reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to create images and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
