The social media platform X has provoked major backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by stripping their clothing.
Several examples have emerged where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing images of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
