The social media platform X has caused significant outrage after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by taking off their attire.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to produce photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting images of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
