The online platform X has provoked widespread backlash after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of women by taking off their clothing.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give reactions or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to produce images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing images of people in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
