The online platform X has caused widespread anger after people used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their attire.
Numerous instances have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to ban nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for enabling users to create images and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
