The social media platform X has provoked significant outrage after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by taking off their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to ban nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for allowing users to produce images and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these images 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 bans "showing likenesses of persons in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
