The online network X has caused significant anger after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their attire.
Numerous examples have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to create photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting images of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
