The social media platform X has provoked major outrage after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by stripping their garments.
Numerous instances have emerged where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to provide reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to generate pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
