The online network X has sparked widespread anger after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to ban nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to provide commentary or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to create pictures and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
