The online platform X has caused significant anger after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by stripping their clothing.
Several examples have emerged where the system has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to give reactions or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for enabling users to create images and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
