The social media network X has sparked major outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by taking off their clothing.
Numerous examples have been seen where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an posted image through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been condemned for enabling users to generate pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
