The social media network X has caused widespread backlash after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by removing their attire.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to generate photos and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
