The online platform X has caused major outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by stripping their attire.
Several examples have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
