The social media platform X has caused widespread backlash after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by removing their clothing.
Numerous cases have been seen where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to create images and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
