The online network X has sparked major backlash after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of women by removing their clothing.
Numerous instances have been seen where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, offered no comment to requests for comment, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping technology. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not confirm whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which answers X users' queries when they reference it in a message.
It is often used to provide commentary or more background to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to produce pictures and footage with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "depicting likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit 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 confirmed this included explicit AI images made with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "reduce the danger" of users encountering illegal content on their services and to take down it quickly when they learn of it.
