The online network X has sparked significant backlash after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by removing their garments.
Multiple cases have been seen where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
