The social media platform X has provoked widespread anger after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to ban nudification technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to create photos and footage with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting likenesses of persons in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
