The online platform X has provoked significant anger after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to give reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to produce photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of creating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing likenesses of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
