The online platform X has caused significant anger after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by removing their garments.
Multiple examples have emerged where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
