The online platform X has caused significant anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by stripping their attire.
Several instances have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to offer commentary or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to create photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
