The social media platform X has caused major backlash after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by stripping their attire.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to provide commentary or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to generate photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "showing images of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
