The social media platform X has sparked major anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by stripping their garments.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to give commentary or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to produce photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
