The social media platform X has sparked significant outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by stripping their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
