The social media network X has provoked major backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple instances have emerged where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries 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 capable of edit an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to generate images and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
