The social media network X has caused widespread anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of females by removing their garments.
Several cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to provide reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to create images and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of generating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
