The social media network X has caused significant anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by taking off their attire.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to generate photos and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
