The online platform X has provoked widespread anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by removing their attire.
Multiple cases have been seen where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to produce photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
