The social media platform X has sparked significant backlash after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple examples have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to offer reactions or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for allowing users to produce pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of making graphic material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution 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 "depicting likenesses of people in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
