The online platform X has caused widespread outrage after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by stripping their clothing.
Numerous instances have been seen where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to create pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of making graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting likenesses of people in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
