The online platform X has provoked major anger after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by removing their attire.
Multiple instances have been seen where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, 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 desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to give reactions or additional context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can edit an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been condemned for permitting users to produce images and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the production and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share private pictures or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
