The social media network X has sparked widespread anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by taking off their garments.
Multiple examples have been seen where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company behind Grok, offered no comment to questions, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these forms of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Platform Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or further background to other users' remarks, but people on X are also can edit an posted picture through its AI image editing tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been condemned for permitting users to generate pictures and clips with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was previously accused of generating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and sharing of these pictures for a long time without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "showing likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were mandated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
