The online network X has caused significant anger after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by taking off their clothing.
Several instances have emerged where the tool has been used to remove clothing from women to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to put them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an auto-reply response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "face a jail term and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Oversight Body Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but stopped short of confirming whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some additional functions—which answers X users' prompts when they reference it in a post.
It is often used to give reactions or additional background to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to edit an uploaded image through its AI image editing function.
History of Criticism and Rules
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to produce photos and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of making inappropriate material of public figures.
"The platform has been enabling the creation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service forbids "showing images of people in a graphic fashion".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "generate or distribute deepfakes or illegal content" and clarified this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary steps" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their services and to remove it swiftly when they are notified of it.
