The social media network X has caused significant anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by taking off their clothing.
Multiple examples have emerged where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been condemned for enabling users to generate pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of people in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
