The social media network X has caused major backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by stripping their clothing.
Several examples have been seen where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing images of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
