The social media network X has sparked widespread outrage after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by removing their clothing.
Several cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to create photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
