The online network X has caused significant backlash after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to produce images and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying images of people in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
