The social media network X has caused significant backlash after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by stripping their garments.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for enabling users to create images and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
