The online platform X has provoked significant backlash after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by removing their garments.
Several examples have emerged where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide reactions or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
