The social media network X has provoked widespread anger after users used its AI chatbot Grok to change photos of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous instances have been seen where the tool has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to offer reactions or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to produce images and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting likenesses of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
