The online platform X has sparked major outrage after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by removing their attire.
Several instances have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to give commentary or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for enabling users to generate photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting images of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
