The social media network X has caused major backlash after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by stripping their garments.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to give reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of making graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
