The social media network X has sparked widespread outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by removing their garments.
Several instances have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse 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 tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
