The social media platform X has provoked significant backlash after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by stripping their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being proposed to ban image stripping technology. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to generate photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating graphic content of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the creation and spread of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of people in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their services and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
