The online network X has provoked widespread anger after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by taking off their clothing.
Numerous instances have emerged where the technology has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to produce pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
