The social media network X has sparked widespread backlash after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of females by removing their attire.
Multiple instances have surfaced where the technology has been employed to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization behind Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its AI image editing function.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to create pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting images of individuals in a graphic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to delete it promptly when they become aware of it.
