The social media platform X has caused major anger after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by removing their garments.
Several examples have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for enabling users to generate pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
