The online platform X has sparked significant outrage after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their attire.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to give commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to produce images and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
