The social media platform X has provoked significant outrage after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by stripping their clothing.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for allowing users to produce pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
