The social media network X has provoked major backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by taking off their attire.
Several cases have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to produce pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying images of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
