The online network X has provoked significant outrage after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by stripping their attire.
Numerous examples have emerged where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an posted picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for enabling users to produce photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of making graphic content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
