The social media network X has caused major backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to produce photos and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying images of people in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
