The online network X has sparked major outrage after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple examples have been seen where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"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 Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to create images and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting likenesses of people in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
