The online platform X has caused major backlash after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of women by taking off their garments.
Several instances have been seen where the system has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for allowing users to create photos and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing likenesses of persons in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
