The online network X has sparked significant anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by removing their clothing.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to provide commentary or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to create pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
