The social media network X has provoked widespread outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by taking off their clothing.
Several instances have emerged where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of generating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
