The social media network X has provoked widespread backlash after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by taking off their clothing.
Several cases have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to generate photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of people in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
