The social media platform X has caused major outrage after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of females by stripping their clothing.
Multiple examples have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to create photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
