The online platform X has sparked major outrage after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by removing their garments.
Multiple examples have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify 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 responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to give reactions or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to generate pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "showing images of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
