The online platform X has provoked major backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Multiple examples have emerged where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to ban nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to create images and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
