The social media platform X has provoked significant outrage after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by removing their attire.
Several instances have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to offer reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to create photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
