The online network X has caused widespread anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by stripping their attire.
Numerous cases have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to generate pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
