The social media platform X has caused widespread outrage after individuals used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by stripping their clothing.
Several examples have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to produce images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
