The online network X has provoked widespread outrage after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by removing their attire.
Multiple instances have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for allowing users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of creating graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
