The social media network X has caused significant backlash after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple examples have been seen where the system has been used to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give commentary or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
