The online network X has provoked significant anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by taking off their attire.
Multiple examples have emerged where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded photo through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for permitting users to produce images and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
