The online network X has provoked significant outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of women by stripping their garments.
Multiple instances have emerged where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to provide reactions or more background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for enabling users to create pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
