The social media platform X has provoked major outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by stripping their garments.
Multiple examples have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to ban nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give reactions or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to produce pictures and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
