The online platform X has provoked major anger after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by removing their clothing.
Numerous examples have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of generating graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "showing likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
