The social media network X has caused significant anger after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by removing their garments.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to offer reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to produce photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
