The social media platform X has sparked widespread backlash after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their clothing.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to generate photos and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
