The social media network X has caused major outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by removing their garments.
Several examples have emerged where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to ban nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to generate 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.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
