The social media network X has provoked significant outrage after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by stripping their clothing.
Multiple cases have emerged where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to produce photos and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying images of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
