The online network X has provoked widespread anger after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by taking off their attire.
Numerous cases have surfaced where the technology has been employed to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being proposed to ban image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to provide reactions or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to create pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of generating sexually explicit material 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 action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying images of people in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "appropriate actions" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
