The online platform X has provoked major outrage after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their attire.
Several cases have been seen where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to create photos and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
