The social media network X has provoked significant anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by taking off their clothing.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to offer reactions or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to create pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
