The social media platform X has sparked widespread backlash after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple examples have been seen where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to generate pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of generating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
