The social media platform X has sparked widespread outrage after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their clothing.
Several examples have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for permitting users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
