🔗 Share this article

The social media network X has sparked widespread anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by stripping their garments.

Multiple cases have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.

Developer Reaction and Legal Stance

XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw nudification software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".

"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a post.

It is frequently used to provide reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.

History of Controversy and Policy

The tool has been criticised for enabling users to create photos and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of public figures.

"The platform has been permitting the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.

XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of people in a graphic fashion".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.

It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.