The online platform X has sparked significant outrage after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of women by stripping their clothing.
Numerous instances have surfaced where the tool has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in inappropriate scenarios.
Company Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to inquiries, except for an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that legislation is being proposed to prohibit image stripping software. Under a new law, anyone who provided such tools would "be subject to a jail term and substantial fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time investigating X or Grok in concerning AI-generated images.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some additional functions—which reacts to X users' prompts when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to provide commentary or more context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for allowing users to generate pictures and footage with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in generating inappropriate content of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these images for a long time without taking any measures and we have yet to see any intervention by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "depicting images of people in a pornographic way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary measures" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
