The online network X has provoked significant anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of women by taking off their attire.
Numerous instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to show them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "consider the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to provide reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for permitting users to generate pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform 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 intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
