The online platform X has sparked significant outrage after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by stripping their attire.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for enabling users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of making graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
