The social media platform X has caused major anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by stripping their attire.
Several instances have been seen where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
