The online platform X has provoked major outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by stripping their garments.
Numerous cases have emerged where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to give reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted image through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for permitting users to generate photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
