The social media network X has sparked widespread outrage after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by removing their garments.
Numerous instances have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to produce pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
