The online network X has sparked significant anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by removing their garments.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for permitting users to produce photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of making graphic content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
