The social media network X has provoked significant outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by removing their attire.
Several instances have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to ban nudification software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to produce images and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of making graphic content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the creation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting images of persons in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
