The social media platform X has caused major outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by stripping their clothing.
Numerous cases have emerged where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the potential" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' requests when they mention it in a post.
It is commonly used to give reactions or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded picture through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for enabling users to create photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of people in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the danger" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they are notified of it.
