The social media network X has provoked widespread anger after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their attire.
Several instances have emerged where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for permitting users to produce photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and stated this covered sexual deepfakes made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful content on their services and to take down it promptly when they are notified of it.
