The social media network X has provoked major outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of women by taking off their attire.
Numerous cases have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to ban nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for allowing users to produce pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
