The social media network X has caused widespread anger after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by stripping their clothing.
Several examples have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to ban nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to create images and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
