The social media network X has sparked significant backlash after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their clothing.
Several instances have emerged where the system has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been faulted for permitting users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
