The social media network X has sparked widespread backlash after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Several instances have emerged where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to produce photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting images of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
