The online platform X has sparked widespread outrage after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their garments.
Several examples have emerged where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to give commentary or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to produce photos and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of making graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
