The online platform X has sparked major backlash after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by stripping their clothing.
Several instances have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to give commentary or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
