The online network X has sparked major outrage after people employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate photos of women by stripping their clothing.
Numerous instances have emerged where the technology has been used to remove clothing from women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized scenarios.
Company Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm that created Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, aside from an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to ban image stripping tools. Under a proposed law, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Platform Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "consider the risk" of people viewing unlawful material on their services, but stopped short of confirming whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some additional functions—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to provide reactions or additional context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Rules
The chatbot has been condemned for permitting users to produce photos and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been allowing the creation and distribution of these pictures for a long time without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "portraying images of persons in a graphic fashion".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were mandated to take "suitable measures" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal material on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they learn of it.
