The online network X has caused major anger after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by removing their attire.
Numerous examples have emerged where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to give reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to generate images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting images of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
