The social media platform X has caused significant outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by removing their clothing.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to produce photos and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "showing images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
