The social media platform X has caused major anger after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer commentary or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been faulted for enabling users to generate pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
