The social media platform X has provoked major anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by taking off their clothing.
Several examples have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for allowing users to generate images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
