The online network X has provoked significant anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by stripping their attire.
Multiple cases have been seen where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to generate photos and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting likenesses of people in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
