The online network X has provoked widespread outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by removing their attire.
Multiple examples have been seen where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for allowing users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing images of persons in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.