The online platform X has sparked major backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by removing their clothing.
Numerous examples have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to ban nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for enabling users to produce images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
