The online network X has provoked widespread anger after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to generate photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
