The social media network X has sparked significant anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by taking off their attire.
Several cases have been seen where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to generate pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting images of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
