The online network X has provoked major backlash after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by removing their attire.
Numerous cases have been seen where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give commentary or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to create photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating graphic material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting images of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
