The social media platform X has provoked widespread outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by stripping their clothing.
Several examples have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
