The social media platform X has provoked widespread backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple examples have been seen where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to produce photos and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
