The social media platform X has provoked major outrage after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by taking off their attire.
Several cases have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"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."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to provide reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to generate pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of creating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
