The social media platform X has caused widespread backlash after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple examples have been seen where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "showing likenesses of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
