The online platform X has caused significant outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their attire.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to create images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
