The online platform X has provoked significant anger after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by stripping their garments.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to give reactions or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of making graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting images of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
