The online network X has provoked significant backlash after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their attire.
Several instances have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to ban nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"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 Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting images of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
