The social media network X has sparked major backlash after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to alter photos of females by taking off their attire.
Numerous instances have emerged where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to create photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
