The online platform X has caused significant backlash after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of women by taking off their clothing.
Numerous instances have emerged where the system has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
