The online platform X has sparked significant outrage after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by taking off their clothing.
Several instances have been seen where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to create images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting images of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
