The online network X has caused significant backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by removing their garments.
Multiple instances have emerged where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to ban nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to give reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been faulted for permitting users to produce images and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
