The social media platform X has caused significant backlash after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple instances have emerged where the technology has been used to remove clothing from women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to produce photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
