The online platform X has sparked widespread outrage after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by removing their garments.
Several instances have surfaced where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give reactions or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to create images and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the production and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing likenesses of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
