The online platform X has sparked widespread backlash after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by removing their attire.
Multiple examples have been seen where the system has been used to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in inappropriate situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being brought forward to outlaw image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the risk" of people accessing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' requests when they reference it in a tweet.
It is often used to give reactions or additional background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been faulted for enabling users to create images and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "depicting images of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or share private pictures or illegal content" and clarified this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary 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.
