The online platform X has caused significant outrage after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by removing their attire.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted image through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to create images and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of making graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
