The social media platform X has sparked major backlash after people used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple examples have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to generate photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
