The online network X has sparked widespread outrage after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple examples have been seen where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to generate pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
