The social media platform X has provoked major backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by taking off their attire.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
