The online network X has caused widespread outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by removing their clothing.
Multiple cases have been seen where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to create photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying likenesses of people in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
