The online platform X has sparked widespread outrage after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by stripping their attire.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to give reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for allowing users to create pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously accused of generating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing likenesses of people in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
