The social media network X has sparked significant outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by taking off their attire.
Numerous instances have emerged where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for enabling users to produce photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
