The online network X has sparked widespread outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by removing their attire.
Several examples have been seen where the system has been employed to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to give reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
