The social media network X has provoked significant backlash after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by taking off their attire.
Several instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to give reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to produce images and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
