The social media platform X has provoked significant backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their garments.
Multiple instances have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
