The online network X has caused widespread outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by stripping their garments.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of making graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting images of people in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
