The social media platform X has provoked widespread anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by taking off their clothing.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for enabling users to generate photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
