The social media network X has caused significant backlash after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by removing their attire.
Numerous cases have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to give commentary or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to produce images and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing images of people in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
