The online platform X has caused major backlash after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by removing their garments.
Multiple examples have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to provide reactions or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
