The social media network X has provoked widespread backlash after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by removing their garments.
Several examples have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to create pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting images of individuals in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
