The social media network X has caused major backlash after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by stripping their clothing.
Multiple instances have been seen where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office official stated that legislation is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some additional features—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or more context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to create photos and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit content of celebrities.
"The platform has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across unlawful material on their platforms and to take down it promptly when they become aware of it.
