The online network X has caused major anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of women by taking off their clothing.
Several cases have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted image through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of creating graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing likenesses of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
