The online platform X has sparked significant outrage after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer reactions or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to produce photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
