The online platform X has sparked major anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by stripping their garments.
Multiple instances have been seen where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification software. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for allowing users to create photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting images of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
