The social media platform X has provoked significant anger after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their garments.
Several instances have been seen where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw nudification tools. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted image through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for allowing users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
