The online network X has sparked major anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by taking off their clothing.
Several examples have emerged where the system has been used to digitally undress women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give commentary or additional context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to produce pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing likenesses of people in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
