The social media platform X has sparked major backlash after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of females by removing their garments.
Numerous cases have been seen where the technology has been employed to digitally undress women to make them appear in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, remained silent to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they tag it in a message.
It is often used to provide reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been condemned for enabling users to create images and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier accused of making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying likenesses of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or distribute private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the danger" of users coming across unlawful material on their services and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
