The social media platform X has caused major backlash after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by taking off their garments.
Numerous examples have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for enabling users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
