The social media platform X has provoked significant outrage after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their garments.
Numerous instances have emerged where the system has been employed to remove clothing from women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to provide reactions or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of generating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting images of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to take down it promptly when they learn of it.
