The social media platform X has sparked widespread anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by taking off their attire.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to give reactions or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of generating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying images of people in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
