The social media network X has caused widespread anger after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by removing their garments.
Multiple instances have been seen where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to create images and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
