The social media network X has provoked major anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by taking off their attire.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give reactions or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to create pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of creating graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
