The social media platform X has provoked widespread outrage after users used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by removing their garments.
Several examples have emerged where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give commentary or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to create photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
