The social media network X has provoked significant backlash after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by removing their garments.
Multiple instances have emerged where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to produce pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
