The online platform X has provoked widespread anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate pictures of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to ban nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to produce pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing likenesses of people in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
