The social media network X has provoked significant anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by taking off their clothing.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to create images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
