The online network X has caused widespread outrage after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for allowing users to create photos and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing images of people in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
