The social media platform X has caused significant anger after people utilized its AI chatbot Grok to alter images of women by stripping their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, except for an auto-reply response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to generate photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing likenesses of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or circulate deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the risk" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
