The social media platform X has caused significant anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by stripping their garments.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for permitting users to produce photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of creating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
