The social media platform X has provoked widespread outrage after people utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to alter pictures of women by removing their attire.
Multiple examples have surfaced where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized scenarios.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the firm behind Grok, did not respond to inquiries, aside from an auto-reply message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being introduced to outlaw image stripping software. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who distributed such tools would "receive a jail term and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok has the ability to stop these types of abuse if they wanted to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "appear to enjoy impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "consider the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their platforms, but did not specify whether it was at this time looking into X or Grok in relation to AI-generated images.
Grok is a free chatbot—with some premium features—which reacts to X users' prompts when they tag it in a post.
It is often used to offer commentary or further context to other users' remarks, but people on X are also able to modify an posted image through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for permitting users to create pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was earlier alleged to have been involved in creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"The platform has been allowing the generation and spread of these pictures for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any intervention by regulators," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own terms of service prohibits "portraying images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was illegal to "generate or share deepfakes or child sexual abuse material" and clarified this applied to explicit AI images created with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the risk" of users coming across illegal content on their services and to delete it swiftly when they become aware of it.
