The social media platform X has provoked significant anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by taking off their clothing.
Several cases have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
