The online platform X has provoked major anger after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of women by stripping their attire.
Several examples have emerged where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to create pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of persons in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
