The social media network X has sparked significant outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by stripping their clothing.
Multiple instances have been seen where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to provide commentary or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to create images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting images of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
