The social media network X has provoked major anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by stripping their garments.
Several instances have surfaced where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to generate pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of generating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting images of persons in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
