The online platform X has sparked widespread outrage after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their attire.
Multiple examples have emerged where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for allowing users to generate images and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
