The social media platform X has sparked widespread backlash after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by taking off their garments.
Numerous examples have been seen where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to give commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
