The social media platform X has sparked significant outrage after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of women by removing their garments.
Several examples have been seen where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for enabling users to create pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
