The online network X has caused widespread outrage after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple examples have emerged where the tool has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to create pictures and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "showing images of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
