The social media network X has provoked significant backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by taking off their attire.
Multiple instances have emerged where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to create photos and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
