The social media platform X has sparked significant backlash after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their garments.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to create images and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
