The social media platform X has provoked widespread anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by removing their attire.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to generate images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
