🔗 Share this article

The online platform X has caused major outrage after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by removing their clothing.

Several instances have been seen where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.

Developer Response and Regulatory Stance

XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban nudification tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".

"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."

Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities

The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.

Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.

It is frequently used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.

History of Controversy and Rules

The system has been faulted for allowing users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.

"The platform has been allowing the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.

XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit way".

In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images made with AI.

It said services such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.