The social media network X has sparked major outrage after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple cases have been seen where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give commentary or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting images of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
