The online network X has sparked widespread outrage after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of women by taking off their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to create photos and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting images of persons in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
