The social media network X has provoked widespread backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by stripping their attire.
Several examples have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to produce images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting images of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
