The online platform X has caused significant anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by stripping their attire.
Several cases have emerged where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for enabling users to create pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing images of persons in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
