The online platform X has caused major anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of women by taking off their clothing.
Numerous cases have emerged where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to generate photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
