The online platform X has provoked widespread outrage after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by stripping their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for allowing users to create photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of generating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
