The social media network X has sparked widespread backlash after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by removing their attire.
Numerous cases have been seen where the technology has been used to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give commentary or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
