The online platform X has caused widespread backlash after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by removing their attire.
Multiple cases have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to give commentary or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
