The online platform X has sparked significant outrage after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple cases have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide commentary or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for enabling users to produce pictures and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
