The online platform X has caused significant backlash after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their attire.
Multiple instances have emerged where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to create pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
