The online platform X has caused significant outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by removing their garments.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to generate pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of creating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing images of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
