The social media network X has sparked significant anger after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by removing their clothing.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that legislation is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and significant penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional features—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to give commentary or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Rules
The system has been faulted for permitting users to produce images and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and spread of these images for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing images of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary measures" to "minimize the risk" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
