The online platform X has provoked widespread outrage after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by taking off their clothing.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted image through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to create pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
