The online platform X has provoked major backlash after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple examples have been seen where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing images of people in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
