The social media network X has provoked widespread anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by taking off their clothing.
Several cases have been seen where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to create images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
