The online network X has caused significant backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by stripping their clothing.
Numerous instances have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to create photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
