The social media network X has provoked major anger after individuals utilized its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to manipulate images of women by removing their garments.
Several examples have surfaced where the technology has been used to virtually strip female subjects to render them in bikinis without consent, as well as to insert them in sexualized contexts.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the company that created Grok, did not respond to questions, aside from an standard message stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government official stated that legislation is being proposed to outlaw image stripping technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who supplied such tools would "receive a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"The platform has the ability to stop these types of misuse if they chose to," said Clare McGlynn, adding they "seem to have impunity."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The regulator Ofcom said tech firms must "consider the risk" of people seeing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence pictures.
Grok is a no-cost AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a message.
It is commonly used to offer reactions or more context to other users' comments, but people on X are also can modify an uploaded image through its AI image editing feature.
History of Criticism and Policy
The tool has been faulted for enabling users to produce pictures and videos with nudity and sexually suggestive material, and it was in the past alleged to have been involved in creating sexually explicit material of celebrities.
"X has been enabling the generation and sharing of these pictures for months without taking any steps and we have not seen any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy forbids "portraying images of people in a sexually explicit manner".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or share private pictures or illegal content" and confirmed this covered explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were obligated to take "appropriate measures" to "reduce the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to remove it quickly when they are notified of it.
