The social media network X has sparked significant backlash after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by taking off their attire.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer commentary or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
