The social media network X has provoked significant backlash after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their clothing.
Several cases have surfaced where the system has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide reactions or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to produce pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the production and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
