The social media platform X has provoked major anger after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple cases have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for enabling users to generate photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
