The online network X has provoked widespread anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their clothing.
Several cases have emerged where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for permitting users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting images of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
