The social media network X has provoked widespread backlash after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to give commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for permitting users to create images and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
