The social media network X has sparked significant backlash after people employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter pictures of females by stripping their garments.
Multiple instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide reactions or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to generate photos and videos with nudity and sexualised material, and it was earlier accused of creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing images of individuals in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
