The social media network X has provoked significant anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by removing their attire.
Several instances have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to produce photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of making inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing images of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
