The social media network X has caused major backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by stripping their garments.
Numerous cases have been seen where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to produce pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
