The online network X has caused significant backlash after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by stripping their clothing.
Numerous cases have been seen where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting images of people in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
