The social media platform X has provoked significant backlash after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by removing their attire.
Several cases have surfaced where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban nudification tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to give reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to produce photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting images of persons in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they learn of it.
