The online platform X has sparked significant outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by stripping their clothing.
Several examples have been seen where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw nudification software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to give reactions or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to generate pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
