The social media network X has provoked widespread anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of women by stripping their garments.
Multiple examples have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded image through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for permitting users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
