The online platform X has provoked widespread outrage after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Multiple instances have emerged where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to produce pictures and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of generating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing images of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
