The online platform X has caused significant backlash after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by stripping their clothing.
Numerous examples have emerged where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to provide commentary or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted image through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to create photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
