The social media network X has caused major backlash after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by removing their clothing.
Several cases have been seen where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of making graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
