The social media platform X has provoked major backlash after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to provide reactions or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to generate pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting images of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
