The social media platform X has sparked widespread anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by stripping their clothing.
Numerous instances have been seen where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to offer reactions or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
