The social media platform X has sparked widespread anger after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by stripping their clothing.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide reactions or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for enabling users to create images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting likenesses of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
