The social media platform X has sparked widespread backlash after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their garments.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
