The online network X has sparked significant anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to give commentary or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been criticised for permitting users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of making graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
