The social media platform X has sparked major outrage after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by taking off their attire.
Several examples have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to produce photos and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
