The online network X has caused major outrage after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by stripping their garments.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to create pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
