The social media platform X has sparked significant anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by stripping their clothing.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools 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 a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give commentary or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for enabling users to create photos and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
