The social media platform X has caused major backlash after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by stripping their garments.
Multiple cases have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an auto-reply message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which answers X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to give commentary or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to create photos and videos with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in making graphic material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "generate or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their services and to remove it promptly when they learn of it.
