The social media network X has caused widespread anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of women by stripping their attire.
Several examples have emerged where the tool has been used to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these types of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been criticised for permitting users to generate images and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting images of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to take down it quickly when they are notified of it.
