The online platform X has caused widespread backlash after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by removing their garments.
Numerous examples have emerged where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to generate images and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting images of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
