The online network X has sparked widespread anger after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by taking off their garments.
Several instances have emerged where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to generate images and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
