The social media network X has caused widespread outrage after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of women by taking off their attire.
Multiple cases have emerged where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for permitting users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified 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 viewing illegal material on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
