The online network X has provoked significant anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by stripping their clothing.
Numerous cases have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to provide commentary or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to generate pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
