The social media platform X has sparked major backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by stripping their attire.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted image through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to generate images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing likenesses of people in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
