The social media network X has caused widespread anger after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by removing their clothing.
Numerous instances have emerged where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for allowing users to generate pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
