The social media network X has sparked widespread outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by removing their clothing.
Several cases have emerged where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify 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 responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for enabling users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.