The social media platform X has sparked widespread anger after people used its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by removing their attire.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting images of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
