The social media platform X has caused major backlash after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of women by stripping their attire.
Several cases have emerged where the system has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for permitting users to generate photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of persons in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
