The social media network X has sparked widespread anger after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous examples have emerged where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to ban nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to produce images and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing images of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
