The online platform X has caused significant backlash after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their garments.
Multiple instances have emerged where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to give commentary or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of making graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing images of persons in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
