The online network X has caused widespread backlash after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by taking off their attire.
Multiple cases have been seen where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to offer reactions or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been criticised for allowing users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
