The social media platform X has sparked major backlash after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by stripping their attire.
Numerous examples have been seen where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer reactions or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing images of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
