The online network X has provoked significant outrage after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by taking off their clothing.
Several examples have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to create photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
