The online platform X has caused significant backlash after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by removing their garments.
Several cases have surfaced where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to generate photos and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting images of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
