The social media network X has sparked widespread backlash after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by removing their attire.
Several cases have been seen where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to give commentary or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for permitting users to produce images and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of generating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
