The online platform X has caused widespread outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of women by removing their attire.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for enabling users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
