The online platform X has caused significant anger after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their garments.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to provide reactions or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to generate pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
