The social media platform X has caused widespread backlash after individuals used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate pictures of females by removing their garments.
Multiple examples have emerged where the system has been used to remove clothing from female subjects to show them in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to place them in sexualized contexts.
Company Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the company responsible for Grok, did not respond to requests for comment, except for an standard response stating "legacy media lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being introduced to prohibit image stripping technology. Under a proposed criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "be subject to a prison sentence and heavy fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of misuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said platforms must "evaluate the potential" of people viewing illegal content on their platforms, but stopped short of confirming whether it was currently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a free artificial intelligence—with some premium functions—which answers X users' requests when they tag it in a tweet.
It is commonly used to give reactions or additional context to other posters' remarks, but people on X are also can modify an posted photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Controversy and Rules
The chatbot has been criticised for enabling users to create pictures and videos with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in generating sexually explicit material of public figures.
"X has been allowing the production and distribution of these images for months without taking any measures and we have not witnessed any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy bans "showing images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was unlawful to "make or share deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said networks such as X were obligated to take "suitable measures" to "minimize the danger" of users coming across illegal content on their platforms and to take down it quickly when they become aware of it.
