The social media network X has sparked major anger after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by taking off their clothing.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to give reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been faulted for permitting users to create pictures and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing images of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
