The social media network X has caused major outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of women by taking off their garments.
Several instances have emerged where the system has been used to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to generate pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of individuals in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
