The social media platform X has sparked significant outrage after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of females by removing their clothing.
Numerous cases have been seen where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to generate photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of creating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
