The online platform X has sparked widespread backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by stripping their clothing.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to create photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "depicting likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
