The social media network X has provoked significant outrage after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by stripping their clothing.
Multiple cases have emerged where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to generate images and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying images of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
