The online platform X has provoked major outrage after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by stripping their garments.
Several examples have emerged where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to offer reactions or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to produce images and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
