The online platform X has sparked widespread outrage after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter images of females by removing their garments.
Several instances have emerged where the tool has been employed to virtually strip female subjects to make them appear in swimwear without permission, as well as to put them in sexualized contexts.
Company Response and Regulatory Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, remained silent to questions, other than an automatically-generated message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being introduced to prohibit image stripping software. Under a proposed law, anyone who supplied such tools would "face a prison sentence and substantial penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these types of misuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Oversight Body Stance and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the danger" of people viewing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was currently examining X or Grok in concerning artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which responds to X users' requests when they tag it in a post.
It is commonly used to offer commentary or more context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also capable of edit an uploaded image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been faulted for allowing users to produce pictures and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was in the past accused of generating graphic material of celebrities.
"The platform has been permitting the generation and distribution of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," the expert added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying likenesses of persons in a sexually explicit way".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was illegal to "make or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this included explicit AI images generated with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "suitable steps" to "minimize the risk" of users coming across illegal material on their platforms and to take down it swiftly when they are notified of it.
