The social media platform X has provoked significant outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by removing their attire.
Several examples have emerged where the system has been used to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting images of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
