The online platform X has provoked widespread anger after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by taking off their clothing.
Multiple instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for allowing users to create pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
