The online platform X has provoked widespread outrage after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their attire.
Multiple cases have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to give commentary or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to produce images and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of creating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of people in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
