The social media platform X has caused significant backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple examples have emerged where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
