The online platform X has caused major anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of women by stripping their garments.
Several cases have emerged where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been criticised for permitting users to produce photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of persons in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
