The online network X has provoked widespread anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by removing their attire.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to generate pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "showing images of people in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
