The social media platform X has sparked significant outrage after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by removing their attire.
Several examples have been seen where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to provide reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for permitting users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
