The social media network X has provoked major outrage after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by removing their clothing.
Numerous cases have been seen where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban nudification technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to provide commentary or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for allowing users to create pictures and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and stated this included sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
