The online platform X has caused significant backlash after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by stripping their garments.
Multiple instances have emerged where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give commentary or further context 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 chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to create images and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
