The online network X has sparked major anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by taking off their garments.
Several cases have emerged where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to give commentary or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
