The online network X has provoked significant anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their clothing.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to create photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting images of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
