The online network X has caused widespread backlash after people used its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Several examples have surfaced where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to provide reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to create photos and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting images of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
