The social media network X has provoked significant anger after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by stripping their attire.
Numerous examples have been seen where the technology has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a jail term and significant penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional features—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or more background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the creation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering unlawful content on their services and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
