The social media network X has caused major backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by removing their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to provide commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to generate pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation 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 acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
