The online network X has caused widespread anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their attire.
Several instances have been seen where the system has been used to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban nudification technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing images of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and stated this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
