The social media platform X has caused significant outrage after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by stripping their garments.
Several cases have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give reactions or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to generate images and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
