🔗 Share this article

The social media network X has provoked significant backlash after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by stripping their clothing.

Multiple examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.

Company Reaction and Legal Stance

XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".

A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw nudification technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and significant penalties".

"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."

Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality

The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.

Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a post.

It is frequently used to provide reactions or further background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its AI image editing feature.

Background of Controversy and Rules

The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to generate photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of generating inappropriate material of public figures.

"X has been permitting the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.

XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of people in a graphic manner".

In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.

It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.