The social media platform X has provoked major backlash after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by removing their clothing.
Numerous cases have emerged where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to generate pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
