The online platform X has provoked widespread anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of women by taking off their attire.
Several examples have emerged where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to provide reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been criticised for enabling users to generate images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting likenesses of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
