The social media network X has caused significant backlash after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by stripping their attire.
Several cases have been seen where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
