The social media network X has sparked major outrage after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by taking off their garments.
Numerous examples have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "showing likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
