The social media network X has caused widespread outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by taking off their garments.
Numerous instances have been seen where the system has been employed to digitally undress female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexually explicit contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to generate images and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of making graphic material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying likenesses of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
