The online platform X has caused widespread outrage after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple cases have been seen where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give reactions or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to produce pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
