The social media platform X has sparked significant outrage after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their attire.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to create pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
