The social media network X has sparked significant backlash after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by removing their garments.
Numerous cases have emerged where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to produce images and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of creating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying images of persons in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
