The social media platform X has caused significant backlash after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by taking off their clothing.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to create images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
