The online network X has provoked widespread backlash after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by removing their clothing.
Several instances have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to produce pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying images of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
