The online platform X has caused major anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to change pictures of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to ban nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for enabling users to generate images and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of making graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
