The online network X has provoked significant backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by taking off their attire.
Multiple cases have emerged where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to ban nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to give reactions or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted image through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to create pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "showing likenesses of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
