The social media platform X has provoked widespread backlash after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by taking off their attire.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of making graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
