The social media platform X has caused major backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by taking off their clothing.
Several examples have surfaced where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to give commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for allowing users to generate photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and spread of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting images of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
