The social media network X has provoked significant backlash after users employed its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to generate photos and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
