The social media network X has provoked major backlash after individuals employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, did not respond to questions, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who supplied such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of misuse if they desired to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Stance and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "assess the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was presently examining X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' queries when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to alter an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The tool has been criticised for enabling users to create images and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of making graphic content of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this covered explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "suitable actions" to "minimize the risk" of users encountering unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
