The online network X has caused major anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by taking off their garments.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
