The online platform X has provoked major anger after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by removing their garments.
Several examples have surfaced where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to create images and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting likenesses of people in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
