The online platform X has sparked major backlash after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by stripping their clothing.
Numerous instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for permitting users to create pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
