The online network X has sparked significant anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by stripping their clothing.
Multiple examples have been seen where the technology has been used to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being proposed to prohibit image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to give commentary or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted image through its AI image editing tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for permitting users to create images and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "depicting images of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
