The online platform X has caused significant anger after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of females by taking off their attire.
Multiple instances have been seen where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to generate pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of persons in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
