The social media network X has provoked major anger after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by stripping their attire.
Multiple examples have been seen where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting images of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
