The social media platform X has provoked major backlash after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their attire.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to provide commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to produce photos and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
