The social media platform X has caused widespread backlash after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by stripping their attire.
Several cases have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to produce images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of people in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
