The online network X has caused major anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by stripping their garments.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some paid-for functions—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for enabling users to produce photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating graphic content of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "showing likenesses of individuals in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "appropriate actions" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
