The online network X has provoked widespread backlash after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by taking off their attire.
Several examples have been seen where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to ban nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of making graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share private pictures or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
