The online network X has provoked widespread outrage after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by taking off their garments.
Several examples have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying images of persons in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
