The social media network X has provoked widespread anger after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their attire.
Several examples have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexualized situations.
Company Response and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping software. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who supplied such technology would "face a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with impunity."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people accessing unlawful material on their services, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a no-cost chatbot—with some premium features—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to give commentary or further context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexualised content, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or share deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their services and to remove it quickly when they become aware of it.
