The online network X has caused widespread outrage after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by taking off their attire.
Several cases have emerged where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to give reactions or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to produce images and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting images of persons in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
