The online platform X has caused widespread outrage after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by removing their clothing.
Several cases have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to ban nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
