The social media platform X has sparked widespread anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by stripping their clothing.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an posted image through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for permitting users to create images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.