The social media network X has provoked widespread backlash after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by removing their garments.
Multiple examples have been seen where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to ban nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to create pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing images of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
