The online network X has sparked major backlash after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by taking off their clothing.
Numerous instances have emerged where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to provide commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
