The online network X has provoked major anger after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by removing their clothing.
Numerous instances have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to produce pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
