The online network X has sparked major backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by stripping their garments.
Several instances have been seen where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to ban nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to generate images and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting images of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
