The social media platform X has caused major outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change images of females by stripping their clothing.
Several cases have emerged where the technology has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to render them in bikinis without permission, as well as to insert them in inappropriate scenarios.
Developer Reaction and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to requests for comment, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to prohibit image stripping tools. Under a new criminal offence, anyone who provided such tools would "face a jail term and heavy fines".
"The platform could prevent these forms of abuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said platforms must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also able to modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to produce pictures and videos with explicit content and sexualised material, and it was in the past accused of creating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules prohibits "showing images of individuals in a pornographic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images created with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "lessen the risk" of users viewing illegal content on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they become aware of it.
