The online platform X has sparked widespread backlash after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple cases have emerged where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification technology. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for enabling users to generate images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
