The social media platform X has provoked widespread anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by taking off their clothing.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the system has been employed to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to create pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
