The online network X has sparked significant backlash after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple cases have emerged where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to ban nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been condemned for enabling users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
