The social media network X has caused major backlash after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple cases have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to ban nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of generating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
