The social media network X has caused widespread outrage after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by removing their garments.
Numerous examples have emerged where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
