The online platform X has sparked major backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of women by taking off their attire.
Numerous examples have emerged where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of generating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
