The online network X has sparked significant anger after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change images of females by removing their clothing.
Numerous cases have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to generate images and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "depicting likenesses of people in a pornographic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
