The social media network X has sparked major backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by taking off their attire.
Multiple cases have emerged where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to ban nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to give commentary or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting images of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
