The online network X has sparked significant anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for allowing users to create pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
