The online platform X has sparked major backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by stripping their attire.
Several cases have been seen where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to generate photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing images of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
