The social media network X has sparked significant outrage after users used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of women by stripping their garments.
Several instances have been seen where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to render them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexually explicit scenarios.
Developer Response and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government official stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such technology would "receive a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Stance and Platform Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "evaluate the danger" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was currently looking into X or Grok in relation to artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for functions—which responds to X users' requests when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to provide commentary or additional background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Controversy and Policy
The system has been condemned for enabling users to produce photos and footage with explicit content and sexualised content, and it was previously accused of generating graphic material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not witnessed any action by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying images of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they learn of it.
