The online platform X has sparked widespread outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by taking off their clothing.
Numerous cases have emerged where the system has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to generate photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
