The social media platform X has provoked widespread anger after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by removing their attire.
Multiple examples have emerged where the technology has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to generate photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of making inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
