The social media platform X has sparked widespread anger after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by stripping their clothing.
Multiple cases have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to produce pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
