The social media network X has provoked widespread backlash after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of women by removing their garments.
Numerous instances have emerged where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to ban nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been condemned for permitting users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of creating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
