The online network X has sparked major anger after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by removing their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to give commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to generate images and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
