The online platform X has provoked significant outrage after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by taking off their garments.
Multiple cases have emerged where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to offer reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for allowing users to create photos and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting images of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
