The social media network X has caused significant outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by removing their garments.
Several cases have surfaced where the tool has been used to digitally undress female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to questions, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Rules
The system has been condemned for allowing users to generate pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing likenesses of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
