The online network X has sparked major anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by stripping their attire.
Numerous instances have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing images of persons in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
