The social media network X has caused widespread backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by removing their attire.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to give reactions or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an posted image through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for enabling users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting images of persons in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
