The social media network X has caused major backlash after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple examples have emerged where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to give reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for allowing users to generate pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
