The social media network X has caused significant backlash after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by removing their attire.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to give commentary or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to create pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying images of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
