The online network X has provoked significant backlash after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by stripping their garments.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to generate pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of making graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
