The social media platform X has provoked widespread backlash after individuals employed its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of women by removing their attire.
Numerous cases have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to inquiries, other than an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping software. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to give commentary or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to create pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously accused of creating sexually explicit content of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service bans "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this applied to sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
