The online network X has provoked widespread backlash after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of women by stripping their garments.
Numerous cases have been seen where the tool has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been faulted for allowing users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting likenesses of people in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.