The online network X has provoked major anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded image through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been condemned for allowing users to produce pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting likenesses of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
