The online network X has sparked significant anger after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple cases have emerged where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to provide commentary or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to produce pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
