The social media platform X has caused significant anger after users utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by removing their clothing.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to give reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted picture through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to generate photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "depicting images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and clarified this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they become aware of it.
