The online platform X has caused major anger after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple instances have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been condemned for enabling users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting likenesses of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
