The social media network X has provoked significant backlash after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by removing their attire.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to produce pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting images of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
