The social media network X has caused significant anger after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate images of females by taking off their attire.
Numerous cases have been seen where the system has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some additional functions—which answers X users' prompts when they tag it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer reactions or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of edit an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to generate pictures and videos with nudity and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing images of persons in a pornographic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
