The social media platform X has caused widespread anger after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their attire.
Numerous examples have surfaced where the technology has been used to digitally undress women to show them in bikinis without permission, as well as to place them in sexually explicit situations.
Developer Reaction and Regulatory Stance
XAI, the company behind Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an automatically-generated response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A Home Office spokesperson stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban image stripping tools. Under a new law, anyone who distributed such technology would "receive a prison sentence and significant fines".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people viewing unlawful material on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was presently looking into X or Grok in concerning AI-generated 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 frequently used to give reactions or further background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also can alter an uploaded picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification tool.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for allowing users to generate photos and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past accused of creating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been permitting the production and sharing of these images for months without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "portraying likenesses of individuals in a pornographic manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "make or circulate private pictures or illegal content" and stated this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "suitable steps" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing illegal material on their services and to remove it swiftly when they learn of it.
