The online platform X has provoked widespread backlash after users used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by taking off their garments.
Several instances have surfaced where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to ban nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to produce images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting likenesses of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
