Governments must go after social media platforms like X that allow users to create lewd pictures because these companies won't do it on their own.Dado Ruvic/Reuters

That people would use artificial intelligence tools to remove clothes from pictures of women and girls was entirely foreseeable. That’s why the companies behind some of these products installed safeguards to reduce the risk.

However, Elon Musk doesn’t like to restrict Grok, the AI tool on his social media company X. Users soon figured out that Grok would adapt a photo by responding to prompts such as, for example, “put her in a string bikini” and “make her turn around and bend over.” The result, starting last month, was a flood of sexualized images on X.

This is disgusting and degrading behaviour by these users. And it demands a strong response from governments worldwide to hold accountable the company that made it possible.

Canada’s privacy watchdog expands probe into X over Grok’s sexualized deepfakes

Such images carry real harm. They harass and humiliate the people depicted and act to make social media an even more unwelcome place, especially for women. Some Grok users have responded to women who criticized the crude images by asking the bot to put those critics in lewd scenarios.

This sort of behaviour can be attributed in part to the vile nature of some internet users. The online........

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