The online platform X has caused major anger after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of women by removing their attire.
Multiple instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to generate pictures and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content 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 witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting images of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
