The online network X has caused significant anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by taking off their attire.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to ban nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to provide reactions or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for enabling users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting images of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
