The social media network X has sparked widespread outrage after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their clothing.
Several instances have surfaced where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that new laws is being introduced to ban image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to offer reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for allowing users to create images and clips with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the production and spread of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by regulators," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "portraying likenesses of people in a sexually explicit fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or distribute private pictures or illegal content" and stated this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate steps" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful material on their platforms and to delete it quickly when they become aware of it.
