The online network X has provoked major outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of women by stripping their attire.
Numerous instances have been seen where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to create images and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying images of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
