The online network X has caused significant backlash after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by taking off their clothing.
Several examples have emerged where the tool has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to give reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been faulted for allowing users to generate pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
