The online network X has caused major backlash after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their garments.
Several examples have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium features—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been criticised for permitting users to create photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of generating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
