The social media network X has caused widespread outrage after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by removing their garments.
Multiple examples have emerged where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for permitting users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying images of persons in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
