The online network X has caused major backlash after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by taking off their clothing.
Several cases have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to produce pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
