The social media platform X has provoked widespread outrage after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by taking off their clothing.
Numerous instances have been seen where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to create images and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting images of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
