The social media network X has provoked major outrage after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by taking off their attire.
Multiple instances have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to generate photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of generating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of people in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
