The online platform X has caused major backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by stripping their attire.
Several cases have emerged where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they tag 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 edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to produce photos and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of creating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing images of people in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
