The online network X has provoked major backlash after individuals utilized its AI chatbot Grok to change images of women by taking off their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to questions, aside from an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to ban image stripping technology. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to give commentary or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to generate images and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the production and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
