The online network X has sparked widespread backlash after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by stripping their clothing.
Several instances have surfaced where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' queries when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to generate pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and sharing 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 acceptable use policy forbids "depicting likenesses of persons in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
