The social media network X has sparked major outrage after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of women by removing their attire.
Several instances have emerged where the technology has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to give reactions or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to generate images and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of making graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
