The social media platform X has caused widespread anger after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous cases have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being proposed to ban nudification software. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to generate images and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting likenesses of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
