The social media network X has provoked major backlash after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change photos of women by stripping their garments.
Multiple examples have been seen where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear without permission, as well as to place them in inappropriate contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, offered no comment to inquiries, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping software. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a jail term and substantial fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people seeing unlawful material on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to offer reactions or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been condemned for allowing users to generate photos and footage with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate content of public figures.
"X has been allowing the generation and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any action and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "showing images of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this included explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to delete it quickly when they are notified of it.
