The social media network X has provoked widespread outrage after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of women by taking off their clothing.
Multiple instances have emerged where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to give commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted image through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to create pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of creating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
