The social media network X has sparked significant outrage after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of women by removing their attire.
Several instances have surfaced where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or additional background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to generate photos and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they are notified of it.
