The online network X has caused significant outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous cases have been seen where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for allowing users to produce images and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of people in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
