The online platform X has caused widespread anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by removing their clothing.
Several instances have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created 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 prohibit nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to provide reactions or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to generate photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
