The social media platform X has provoked major anger after users employed its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of women by taking off their garments.
Several examples have surfaced where the system has been used to virtually strip women to render them in swimwear without consent, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Company Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization that created Grok, did not respond to inquiries, other than an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A Home Office representative stated that new laws is being introduced to outlaw image stripping tools. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the potential" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in concerning AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they reference it in a post.
It is commonly used to give commentary or further background to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been criticised for permitting users to produce images and footage with nudity and sexualised material, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the generation and spread of these pictures for a long time without taking any action and we have not seen any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules bans "showing images of individuals in a sexually explicit way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said platforms such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across unlawful content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they learn of it.
