The social media platform X has provoked significant outrage after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter photos of females by stripping their clothing.
Several examples have surfaced where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexually explicit contexts.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm that created Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping technology. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "be subject to a jail term and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is often used to offer reactions or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for allowing users to produce images and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was earlier accused of making graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing likenesses of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or distribute non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and stated this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "minimize the danger" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
