The social media platform X has provoked major anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by stripping their garments.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to ban nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to offer reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for allowing users to create images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
