The social media platform X has caused major anger after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by taking off their attire.
Numerous instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for enabling users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of people in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
