The online network X has provoked widespread anger after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of women by removing their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the system has been used to digitally undress female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office official stated that new laws is being proposed to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who supplied such tools would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform could prevent these types of abuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Stance and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their services, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is frequently used to give commentary or further context to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can modify an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been faulted for permitting users to generate images and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been allowing the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing images of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were mandated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the danger" of users encountering illegal material on their services and to remove it quickly when they learn of it.
