The online platform X has provoked major anger after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their attire.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for allowing users to create photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.