The online platform X has caused widespread anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their attire.
Several instances have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been faulted for enabling users to produce pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
