The online platform X has sparked significant outrage after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by stripping their clothing.
Numerous examples have been seen where the technology has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to create images and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
