The online platform X has sparked significant outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by removing their clothing.
Numerous instances have been seen where the system has been employed to remove clothing from women to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in regarding AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they mention it in a message.
It is often used to provide commentary or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to generate pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "depicting likenesses of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate steps" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
