The social media network X has provoked significant outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by removing their garments.
Multiple instances have been seen where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to produce photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting images of persons in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
